Service providers offer numerous voice and/or data services to their subscribers over a telecommunication (telecom) network. One of the more popular types of telecom-type communications is text messaging. Text messaging allows end users to exchange short messages between mobile devices and between fixed-line devices that are text-enabled. Text messaging is controlled by a protocol, such as Short Message Service (SMS). SMS is a set of communication protocols allowing the exchange of short text messages (i.e., 160 characters or less) between devices. While the term “text message” traditionally referred to text-only messages sent using SMS, it has been extended to include multimedia messages that include content such as images, video, sound, etc. The multimedia messages may be sent using Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol.
There are a variety of types of networks that are able to provide voice and data communications for mobile users. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP, 3GPP2) sets forth specifications defining standards for communicating over these networks. One project within the 3GPP is the Long Term Evolution (LTE) which is a project to improve the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) mobile phone standard to cope with future requirements. The architecture defined by this project is referred to as the Evolved Packet System (EPS). The EPS architecture comprehends E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN) on the access side and EPC (Evolved Packet Core) on the core side.
At this time, text messaging over an LTE network has not been adequately defined.